Cars to navigate via multiple operating systems

The environment provides single-chip support for Tron, a variant of the popular Japanese operating system for embedded devices, and Microsoft Windows Automotive, Microsoft’s operating system for cars.

Toshiba and Denso said the environment allows concurrent use of Tron’s advanced automative systems and Microsoft's multimedia applications.

Tron (The Real-time Operation system Nucleus) is the world's most widely-installed operating system. It is used in everything from digital cameras, engine management systems to fax machines to office copiers. Tron was released into the public domain, free of licence fees, in 1984, and with its flexible licensing requirements, has been adapted by different companies for embedded devices. It is not yet widely used outside of Japan.

Demonstration boards of the multi-OS environment as applied to the system on chip (SoC), for DENSO’s car navigation systems and featuring Toshiba’s TX49 processor will be featured at the Tron Show 2004 this week in Tokyo, Japan.

"We expect that this multi-OS environment will be at the de facto standard platform for car navigation systems and provide plenty of benefits to the car users" said Mitsuharu Kato, a Denso product manager.

Microsoft has recently persuaded several carmakers to use its slimmed-down Windows CE operating system for a variety of in-car electronics, from navigation systems to music players to information devices. BMW, in particular, has gravitated to Microsoft systems, although the company has announced wins with Honda, Volvo and others as well.

Microsoft is just one of many companies offering an operating system for use in automotive electronics, competing against QNX Software Systems, Wind River and Linux makers, among others. As of mid-2003, analysts said the company had just about 10 percent of the market for in-car electronics, an industry that itself has fallen short of early estimates.

Microsoft is also working with the Japanese non-profit group T-Engine Forum, which comprises 250 companies, to develop a multi-OS operating system that uses Tron and Windows CE. Tron's one-millionth of a second response speed is a thousand times faster than that of Windows CE, according to a report in the Asahi Shimbun.

News.com’s Ina Fried and CNET Asia’s John Lui contributed to this report.